When asked a few years ago to name the three qualities a lawyer should have, one of the attributes the new attorney general for England and Wales, Richard Hermer KC, chose was “compassion”.
It is difficult to imagine Suella Braverman, who held the role for just over a year until September 2022, championing the same trait, her short reign having driven many lawyers to despair, given her previous attacks on judges, and her advice that the UK could pass a Brexit bill that breached international law.
As a result, the surprise appointment of Hermer, a distinguished human rights lawyer from outside the world of politics, to the role within the government of all the talents has been widely welcomed as a breath of fresh air.
Geoffrey Robertson KC, a founder of Doughty Street chambers, Hermer’s first London set, said: “It is an advantage to have a fully fledged lawyer in the attorney general’s position, who’s had a career that has never been distracted by politics – that has been a problem with former attorneys general. He’s got the law at his fingertips, and his advice would be careful and correct. I think he will guide government action within the parameters of the law.”
Hermer, 55, joined Doughty Street in 1993, three years after it was set up, having completed his pupillage in Wales, where he grew up. He attended Cardiff high school before studying politics and modern history at Manchester University and qualified for the bar in 1993.
At Doughty Street he got to know another of its founder members, Keir Starmer, and when Hermer was made a KC in 2009, it was the future prime minister who gave the toast at his silk ceremony. They have a close relationship and when Starmer ran for Labour leader, Hermer donated £5,000 to his campaign.
Philippe Sands, a founding member of Matrix chambers, where Hermer moved after Doughty Street, said: “He and Keir know each other well so there’s a very high level of trust. Is he the kind of person who can say to his friend: ‘Sorry, prime minister, the law doesn’t allow you to do that’? Yes, absolutely.
“One test might be to take Iraq in February 2003. Can I imagine Richard Hermer signing off on the legality of the use of force against Iraq in those circumstances? No. He will, I think, adopt a position that is grounded in a decent and reasonable interpretation of the law. And he will, I think, have no hesitation, despite their friendship and collegiality going back many years, of indicating what can and cannot be done in accordance with the law.”
Hermer goes into government, as a life peer in the House of Lords, having regularly acted against Labour and Tory ministers in landmark cases in the country’s highest courts. They include everything from multiple claims relating to the “war on terror” to the policy of restraining children in detention. His chambers profile says he was instructed by the family of a British soldier murdered by the IRA in 1991 in a challenge to the Northern Ireland (Legacy and Reconciliation) Act 2023, which Starmer has pledged to abolish.
He has criticised the illegality of the Rwanda bill in a podcast and, in the same 2020 Times interview in which he listed compassion as a key attribute, he said if he could enact a law it would be the “European Union (Please Can We Come Back?) Act”.
His track record is unlikely to endear him to the likes of Braverman, but former Tory attorneys general Victoria Prentis – his immediate predecessor – and Dominic Grieve, praised him when contacted by the Guardian.
Among the issues in his in-tray will be the Gaza war, with some taking his appointment over Emily Thornberry, who had shadowed the role since 2021, as a sign that Labour will take a stronger stance towards Israel after alienating many voters over the issue during the election campaign.
Last October, Hermer, who attends Alyth synagogue in north-west London, was one of several high-profile Jewish lawyers, alongside Sands, to say, in a letter to the Financial Times, that Israel had a right to self-defence but must be guided by the law in its response to the Hamas attack. In an interview on LBC the same month he said it was “almost impossible to conceive of how a siege that deprives a civilian population of the basic necessities of life … is in compliance with international law.”
Hermer, who was appointed a high court judge in 2019, advised Labour on a bill designed to ban public bodies from boycotting other countries, motivated by the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement in relation to Israel. Hermer said the bill, which was not passed before the election and is unlikely to be reprised, would have “a profoundly detrimental impact on the UK’s ability to protect and promote human rights overseas”.
His BDS analysis prompted a Jewish Chronicle story after he had been accused of taking “political” positions on Israel-Palestine.
He responded by saying the report wrongly suggested he was “somehow influenced by some form of malign intent towards Israel”, whereas he was from a “Blue-Box” Jewish family, actively supported a range of Jewish and Israeli organisations and had “dear family members currently serving in the IDF”.
Lord Wolfson, a former Tory justice minister who has known him for years, said he disagreed with Hermer on many matters, and was concerned by a Guardian report that the Labour government is expected to drop a bid to delay the international criminal court (ICC) reaching a decision on whether to issue an arrest warrant for Benjamin Netanyahu over alleged war crimes in Gaza.
But Wolfson said that whatever the positions taken by Hermer “he’ll be acting in good faith. That doesn’t mean that I’ll think he’s right.” He added: “The position of attorney general is where the legal rubber hits the political road, and it takes someone of real principle to discharge the job properly and I’m sure he will.”
Hermer will also have to deal with three cases pending at the international court of justice (ICJ) – on Palestine, the right to strike, and state obligations with respect to climate change – in which Sands said the positions adopted by the Sunak government were “dismal” and put Britain in the margins. Sands said he would be looking out for whether there would be changes in position, adding: “It is hard to imagine Richard Hermer, as attorney general, standing before the ICJ and making or defending the previous government’s arguments.”
Robertson said the only question mark against Hermer was his lack of criminal experience, which would necessitate greater reliance on the director of public prosecutions (a role previously held by Starmer).
Outside work, the new attorney general was variously described as engaging and fun company over a drink and down to earth.
Martyn Day, the founder of human rights law firm Leigh Day, has known Hermer for 26 years, having become his “go to barrister” after he instructed him in a case against tobacco companies related to lung cancer.
He said Hermer was true to his word about compassion when it came to clients and was a pleasure to spend time with. Day said his friend’s appointment had caused a “massive hole in my diary”, already leading to the cancellation of dinner together and a joint trip to the Test match on Friday but his social life’s loss was the country’s gain
“It is the most impressive appointment within the legal world that I’ve seen,” said Day. “He really is a man of integrity. I think we as a nation can thank Keir Starmer for such an innovative decision to bring somebody totally outside politics into what is quite a critical post.”
